Cannabis Advocates Blame Fla. Officials for ‘Reefer Madness’
Tallahassee, FL – As Florida’s Medical Cannabis Registry continues to grow, now exceeding 100,000 patients, cannabis advocates blame state officials for the industry being so besieged with regulatory problems and high costs for patients.
Florida’s medical marijuana registry reached a milestone recently with more than 100-thousand patients signed up for treatment. Cannabis advocates say that number would’ve been four times as much if it weren’t for state officials searching for ways to restrict use. Florida’s Department of Health has been slow to publish regulations for patients, doctors and suppliers. Regulators are fighting a series of legal challenges about the new law. Christopher Cano with the Central Florida chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says patients are also discouraged by excessive costs.
Florida law says the state is supposed to be issuing new licenses to growers and entrepreneurs based on the amount of patients in the system. However, the department requires each patient to be active. So far just over 75-thousand registered patients have been issued IDs to receive treatment.
Cano says the limited number of suppliers in the market is causing prices to stay high. He says Florida is nowhere near being on par with other states when it comes to successfully regulating use.
“All in all, the issues that we see in the Florida medical marijuana system are due to poor regulations and due to a poor job by the office of medical marijuana use, and that really does fall back on the executive branch. ” said Cano.
